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Besides scheduling and planning ahead, I find that repurposing content is the best way to save time in content creation. In other words, using a piece of content you created on different platforms. No, you aren’t just copying and pasting the same things over and over again! There’s a lot more to it than that.

 

You’ve got to market yourself where your audience hangs out, and these days they probably hang out on social media. But we all know that social media can be very time-consuming! You need to post regularly and engage with responses to make sure your content gets seen. 

 

To repurpose content effectively, you’ll need to remember two things:

 

1. You don’t need to be on every platform that exists. – Choose the ones that make sense to you and your audience — and stick to them!
2. You want to repurpose strategically. – Don’t just repost the exact same piece of content across all of your platforms. You can have platform-specific content while still getting extra mileage about each topic.

 

Ready to find out more? Here’s how you can repurpose your own content!

 

Repurposing Content You’ve Created

 

If you are writing blog posts, making videos, or even composing well-thought-out Instagram captions, here are some ideas about how you can repurpose that content across other platforms:

 

Idea #1:

Share three of the main ideas from a blog post / video as three separate Instagram captions.

The number is flexible here, but it’s a good starting point. You can share more if there’s a lot of content. A lot of your Instagram followers won’t go and read your blog / watch your video, so you may as well bring the blog (or at least some of it) to them!

 

Idea #2

Pay attention to comments from your followers, including the questions they ask.

This is a gold mine of ideas for more content! You may be able to answer commonly-asked questions by creating a whole new blog post. If nothing else, you can add them to the FAQs on your website.

 

Idea #3

Expand on your popular content.

Take note of which posts have the most engagement and see what else you can cover on the same topic. Another idea would be to share an excerpt from a popular blog post as a Facebook status or quote yourself on Twitter.

 

Idea #4

Share quotes and screenshots in your stories.

A lot of my Instagram engagement comes from my stories, so I find that it’s a great place to feature my other content that could be interesting and helpful. And vice versa. Over the last few months, I have created a lot of content for my stories, so I am starting to share this content on IGTV.

 

 

Idea #5

Do a video run-through of your written content.

Create a simple talking head video that you can share on IGTV or YouTube. A lot of people would rather watch a video than read a blog post, especially if it is somewhat long. Take advantage of that!

 

Idea #6

Share it on Pinterest. Play around with different images and try several titles/subtitles (aka keywords). Pinterest will consider it as fresh content each time and you will potentially reach more people!

 

Idea #7

Share on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn isn’t the first place we think of when we want to post on social media, but it’s actually a platform just as powerful as any other social media outlet. It’s a good way to grow an audience of your professional peers alongside followers from outside your field.

 

Idea #8

Create freebies.

A good infographic or checklist is one of the most popular ways to get people to sign up for a newsletter. Whenever you can, turn your blog post into an infographic or checklist – bonus points if you make it look pretty by using an online design tool like Canva! And remember: you can use repurposed content on those newsletters, too! It’s the perfect place to share your most recent blog activity. 

 

Idea #9

Optimize older blog posts.

Don’t promote your post once and then never talk about it again! Go back to your old posts that perform well regularly to add new links and update the content, then reshare the new and improved version.

 

Repurposing Visual Content

 

As a photographer, this is one I’m quite familiar with. But you don’t have to be a professional photographer to do this. If you shoot some personal work to use in your Instagram feed, you can use that in several different places. 

 

Just a few examples:

 

• Reuse photos in your Instagram stories.
• Share photos from Instagram on Facebook or Twitter, or create a photography blog on Medium.
• Use your images (paired with powerful titles), to create compelling Pinterest pins.
• Use your images in the templates you use for client communications.
• Use your {best} shots for your portfolio.
• Share your new work with your clients in your quarterly portfolio review as part as your email marketing strategy .
• Showcase your latest work in case studies you present to potential clients.
• Sell your image on microstock or rights managed websites.
• Share behind-the-scenes materials on how you made some of your content.
  

 

These are just a few ways you can repurpose single images, but keep in mind that it doesn’t have to be the same image every time. You can edit the colors to make it fit your purpose or use different crops of the same shot. I love to add text overlays to freshen an old image up and make it relevant to new content.

 

Repurposing Content by Mixing and Matching

 

Your images and captions aren’t glued together; you can repurpose written content with a new image to freshen it up, or you can post an older image with brand new written content. The main idea of repurposing is to thoroughly use the content you have without exhausting it, so pairing the two types of content together in different ways gives you even more room to play around. 

 

For example, when you optimize a blog piece you should also add new images if you think it’s appropriate. A new header image might attract more attention! You could also use multiple similar images from the same shoot for different posts. (This is why it’s a good idea to get as many shots as possible when you set up a photoshoot, and not just stop shooting once you’ve got what you need at that particular moment.)

 

Repurposing is such a great concept and I use it quite often. It keeps me from spending hours thinking up new content and I can cover the topics I choose in a lot more depth. I love that I can use it to reach different branches of my audience in a way that makes sense to them! How will you repurpose your content?